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Re: DIY 12" Jointer

He is one ingenious guy, but I think he goes for the cheapest solution too often for many of the parts of his projects.

There are a number of things I would have done differently. First, he probably wanted to re-use the motor, but the universal motor on those planers sure makes a lot of noise. I would have replaced it with an induction motor and used a larger pulley to get the RPM up where it needs to be. I really don't see the need for the metal table tops either- Formica over Birch ply would have worked just fine. If he was concerned about keeping the table-to-blade gap small but worried about the strength of the table ends there, he could have made metal end pieces like those on many jointers.

Of course, since the infeed and outfeed tables on his DIY jointer are short and won't handle long boards well anyway, he could have just made a planer sled to joint wide boards on in his planer. Or, for a little more $$$ ($450) he could have bought a 12" Shelix head with bearings instead of taking apart a planer (if he had a spare motor.)

Final thought. If you are like me, you NEVER adjust your outfeed table, and rarely adjust the infeed table. The scale on my DJ-20 is so inaccurate that taking off a precise amount isn't easy. I would have made both infeed and outfeed tables fixed - with the infeed offset 1/64" or 1/32" lower. Only the cutter head bearing blocks would be adjustable. That would make it a lot easier to build and align. I can just see it now- a jointer built from Birch ply mounted on top of two 8' long sections of a microlam/gluelam laminated I-beam!! You have all heard of the Gloubo bench the Roubo style woodworking bench built by Chris Schwarz and Megan Fitzpatrick of Popular Woodworking magazine from Gluelam beams. Hmmm, anyone got an old 12" planer to give away?

Re: DIY 12" Jointer

Originally Posted by Alan in Little Washington

Mathias does nice video work. Anybody know what he does for a living?

Yes, Just emailed him and this was his response:

"I'm semi-retired. Used to work at RIM (maker's of the blackberry), and it has worked out well for me.I spend a lot of time on doing stuff for the website - writing these things up, video edits, and preparing plans for sale is very time consuming.